


The Afterlife is Kind

by DragonGirl218



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Aerdyn Week 2019, Episode Ardyn Prologue Spoilers, Episode Ardyn Spoilers, F/M, Feels, Little bit of Fluff, Little bit of angst, Mentions of Death, Reunions, Sad with a Happy Ending, Tears, i haven't read dawn of the future so any similarities are purely coincidence, like they're in the afterlife so, mentions of Somnus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-15
Updated: 2019-06-15
Packaged: 2020-05-12 13:42:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19230274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonGirl218/pseuds/DragonGirl218
Summary: The events of the game are over, but Noctis and Lunafreya aren't the only lovers to reunite in their life after death.For Aerdyn Week 2019





	The Afterlife is Kind

**Author's Note:**

> Anyone who knows me knows that I rarely write ffxv without Prompto, but hey, turns out Aerdyn is something I like enough to write about too~

The King of Light had defeated him. Destroyed him and his tainted soul. Then, there was nothing.

Nothing until, seemingly an eternity and a half later, he heard a voice that was all too painfully familiar.

“Ardyn…!?”

His eyes snapped open in an instant. He felt lightheaded and his mind was fuzzy, but he took stock of the situation as best he could. Amber grains filled his vision and he came to realize that he was lounged against a tree. Which was a very familiar setting, but one that filled him with dread.

“No… no, not again…” he pleaded quietly as he got to his feet to better survey the area. He knew it would be pointless, but at least he was doing something. It was then that he saw her among the wheat, and she saw him.

“Ardyn!” Aera cried out as she ran towards him, fast as she could in her heels on uneven soil. Tears fell freely as she practically lunged at him so she could wrap him in a hug. “Oh, Ardyn, it’s been so long…!”

He was stunned at first, but soon he shook himself out of his stupor and pulled out of Aera’s grasp. “No… no, no… I will not fall victim to one of these fabrications again,” he said to himself, bitter and spiteful. Half the reason he’d absorbed as many sets of memories as he had was to drown out the hallucinations, to retreat into the minds of others when his own was too painful. And yet, as he searched his mind for a safe retreat, he couldn’t find anything beyond his own turbulent emotions…

Aera needed a moment to collect herself after Ardyn’s unexpected behavior, but then she reached out for him yet again. “Ardyn, please, it’s alright now.”

Ardyn slapped her hand away, earning a look from Aera that was beyond scandalized, and took another wary step backwards. “‘Alright’? Nothing has been ‘alright’ in millennia, least of all lately, and looking back on it all, it was  _ never _ ‘alright’! You knew, you  _ all _ knew what would happen, yet you kept me in the dark!” he raged.

“Ardyn, I-”

She was cut off by Ardyn’s broken laughter. “Oh, I see it now - you all kept me in the dark, so I’d already be accustomed once the darkness overwhelmed me, body and soul! That’s it, isn’t it!” He took one large step towards Aera, suddenly right in her face. “But you wouldn’t understand, would you? Somnus certainly didn’t, when I forced him to face the results of his jealousy,” he said, low and dangerous, and he tried to call up his daemonic magic only to suddenly look towards his hand as nothing came to him. Using that magic had become as easy to him as breathing, even during his nightmares and his occasional slips of sanity.

It was then that Aera’s stubborn determination kicked in and she grabbed Ardyn’s face, her hands on either cheek, and made him look at her. “Ardyn Lucis Caelum,” she started sternly, “you will cease this nonsense long enough to realize that you are  _ dead _ , and that the least you can do is give your fiancee a hug after I’ve waited two thousand years here in the Afterlife for you.”

That knocked some sense into him, and he took a good minute to focus on himself. His eyes widened as he realized that there wasn’t the least bit of Scourge in his system, something that hadn’t been the case since before he’d started his Healing journey. Then he visibly paled as the implications sunk in: he really was dead, and that really was Aera, and that meant…

He shook his head, freeing himself from Aera’s grasp, and stared at her longingly until he suddenly looked away, off to the side and down at the ground, so very ashamed. “Aera, oh Aera, I… I don’t deserve you, not anymore,” he admitted quietly, with hints of self-loathing in his voice.

Aera sighed fondly and placed a hand on his cheek. “Come now, Ardyn, I thought we’d broken that bad habit of yours; wallowing in self-pity over things you couldn’t control was never very becoming of you,” she pointed out gently, always more than willing to offer him softness in such a hard world as they’d lived in.

Ardyn hesitated, wanting to pull away from her touch, but in the end he pressed into it instead, his walls broken and too weak to resist even the smallest bit of comfort. “I’m no longer the man you knew, Aera. I’ve done such horrid things. I’ve lied, manipulated people for my own ends, killed…  _ gods, _ Aera, I’ve killed so many… merely forty years since I was freed from that prison, and humanity is once more on the brink of extinction; I even killed the last two of your blood personally…” he confessed brokenly. For the first time in a long while, tears rolled down his cheeks, and he looked so weak and vulnerable in a way Aera had never seen him.

“Oh, Ardyn…” She ran a comforting hand through his hair, and he leaned down so she could do so more easily. “I’m sorry that you had to go through that. I swear I didn’t know  _ that _ was what the gods had in store for you; only that the Crystal had chosen you over your brother… Can you forgive me, beloved?”

That got him to look at her again, his face a mess of tears. “Forgive…? Aera, dearest, you did nothing wrong.” He reached out and tenderly brushed a thumb along her cheekbone, then tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “You only fulfilled your duty as Oracle. Of the two of us, I am the one who ought to atone, for I committed more sins than I can count…”

She shook her head and brushed some of Ardyn’s hair out of his face, and oh, it was long and back to its natural brown hue. “Had I done better, perhaps you never would have had to endure such a fate. Perhaps it could have spurred you and Somnus to work together.”

He sighed, exasperated, but with a hint of a smile. “You won’t concede the point, will you?”

She tried to remain serious but couldn’t help a mischievous smile. “You still know me so well~”

Ardyn laughed, warm and pure, and wiped his tears away before gently lifting Aera’s chin. “Let’s leave the past behind for now, shall we, my dearest~?” he asked, followed by a loving kiss.

Aera returned the kiss and nodded. “Yes, let’s~”

And so Ardyn lifted Aera into his arms, kissed her again, and walked off towards the sunset. They may have been apart for two thousand years, but now they had all of eternity ahead of them, together.


End file.
